raise the money in her own way, and to contribute her proportion to
the common fund. That was a great concession to the self-government of
the Mother Country.

There is no doubt a great difference between subventions and
preferences. A subvention may be raised by a perfectly orthodox fiscal
process. No more money is taken from the taxpayer than is required.
The whole yield of the tax by which the subvention may be raised
certainly goes to the Exchequer, and when the subvention is paid to
the foreign or Colonial Government, it does not go, as a preference
would go, to benefit particular interests in the Colony, but it goes
to the Government of the Colony for the general purposes of State, and
not for private advantage on either side. Therefore it seems to me
that the method of subvention is on all grounds to be preferred to the
method of preference.

It is of course necessary, however, in examining a question of
subvention to look at it on its merits. This proposal of 1 per cent.
put forward by Mr. Deakin carried the support of the official
spokesman of the Opposition. Let us look at it on its merits. Look
first at the proportions on which this new fund was to be subscribed.
Canada was "to dedicate"--that was the expression used by Mr.
Deakin--£400,000, New Zealand £20,000, Newfoundland £6,000, Cape
Colony £40,000, Natal £26,000, Great Britain £4,500,000, and
Australia--the proposing body--what was she to "dedicate" to this
fund? No more than £100,000 a year, or one forty-fifth part of the
contribution which was to be made by this country. And for what object
was this fund to be accumulated? It is hard enough for the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to raise the money to carry on so great an
establishment as this country is forced necessarily to maintain. But